The popular modern world culture, American culture in particular is full of mysteries. These mysteries due to technology have largely fascinated modern-day man. Men in developed countries are so fond of progress and technology in the contemporary world. Their enthusiasm for everything related to technological progress deprives them of human consciousness, qualities, and abilities. In the same way, zombies parallel fear of technological progress in the modern culture which brings people ecological disasters, gadgets such as tablets and cell phones, artificial viruses, and many more. It is feared that there would be more Facebook comments and Instagram followers than actual handshakes as technology has surpassed human interactions. To prove my stance, I have selected a movie named “Plan 9 from Outer Space” which presents the idea of aliens who use zombies to prevent humans from making a solarbonite bomb as a doomsday weapon.
Zombies in the selected movie that I watched a few months back can be seen as sleeper agents. They are controlled by aliens presented in the movie as communists with the idea of controlling everyone living on the Earth under their communist government. The original idea derived from Haiti, zombies are controlled by a zombie master through the use of technology. The use of technology makes zombies lose their willpower and consciousness. Aliens reanimate corpses and zap the earth to stop humanity from creating the solarbonite by suppressing zombies’ aggressiveness with pistol-like electrode guns that utilize some sort of electrokinetic beam. However, plan 9 fails because of the death of Eros and Tanna as they fail to stop humanity from creating a sort of solar-driven bomb (Wood, 1959).
The reason why zombies are presented as sleeper agents in the movie is to present them a completely harmless creatures. However, when activated through the use of technology they create chaos among humans. For instance, Eros instructs the zombified Clay who is an inspector before he is infected with the zombie virus to kidnap Paula under the command of aliens (Wood, 1959). This instigates the fear of having the dead come back to life (zombies) and also the fear of the unknown (aliens) which can make humans live in an extraterrestrial world that can significantly bring disaster to the Earth. The theme of this movie subsequently leads to the fear of resurrecting the dead of the Earth who are relentless and stupid yet mortal in the hands of aliens. This could be seen as a danger to the lives of the living on our beloved planet, Earth.
Works Cited
Wood, Edward Davis. Plan 9 from outer space. Aventi, 1959.
